Gaochang

Gaochang was an oasis city in western China, one of a string along the Silk Road as it skirted the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert. These days it is a tourist stop, popular in part because it is at the eastern end of the desert, allowing visitors from China to see something of the Silk Road without having to cross hundreds of miles of grim wasteland.

The city was founded in the first century CE by Juchi people, natives to the region. It first fell under Chinese control in 327 CE, and from then on it alternated between rule by China and various nomad empires.

In 850 it became the capital of the Uighur kingdom of Qocho (alias Chotscho, Khocho, or Qočo). It remained under Uighur control until it became part of the Mongol empire in 1209. Under the Uighurs it was a cultural crossroads, and remains of Buddhist stupas,

Nestorian churches,

and Manichaean shrines can still be seen there.

It was sacked by the Mongols in 1318 and thereafter declined, disappearing by the seventeenth century. Above, Uighur princesses.